Men and Methods

Dominion, Volume 22, Issue 224, 18 June 1929, Page 15

Men and Methods

BUSINESS PLANS AND IDEAS (Conducted by ’* OBSERVER”)

Style Sells the Goods. Style controls the sales in at least three-fourths of the merchandise offered by retailers, according to an international authority on dry goods. Quality, durability, workmanship and the other factor’s which make up intrinsic value still must be considered, but as between an inferior article which embodies style and a superior one which lacks the,’magic touch of fashion, the turnover of the former will be so much more rapid than the latter that the general statement does not appear to be exaggerated. Men, we are old, follow the styles, often unconsciously, but are not “style conscious” in the way women' are. \ In consequence there are movements on in several lines of business to make men consciously, aware of the style factor. Style in millinery, dresses, suits, overcoats and the like has long be?n an extremely, important consideration in retailing, but it is only comparatively recently that style has entered largely into the sale of kitchen utensils, door-knobs, cigarette-holders, .'and whatnots. • Maxims for Real Estate Buyers. How, to make money handling real estate was recently compressed into eight maxims by a well-known real estate oper-' ator. /The successful operator invests just as little, of his own funds as possible, glad to pay 6 per cent, interest for the use of money that he expects to bring profit. And mortgage interest is deductible from your Income tax., . Buy when others aren't buying freely—don't wait for a boom. ■ Buy property monopolistic in character. that will increase in value because it can’t be exactly duplicated, such as water-front near, a great city or a business corner in a thriving neighbourhood, Buy when things are going to happen in. the future, not where the neighbourhood is built up and changes are unlikely. •Don't take things for granted, such as the statement that bridges make high values or that proximity to a railroad station is an asset Transportation facilities make values, but not necessarily 1 for property almost on top of bridge or station. ~ . i After asking questions and comparing values in the neighbourhood and-judging all future possibilities, then' have the courage of your convictions to stay by your guns. . • Know when to sell—you never get poor taking a profit, but don’t sell until yoti are convinced values have approached a temporary peak at least. Don’t retain indefinitely property that is unimproved. Either sell or put a building on it'that will produce enough.to* pay, taxes and carrying charges. Newspaper Illustrations. : The final printed result of an illustration should not be the concern of only the adyertiser . but of the agent, blockmaker and publisher as well. There has been a great -improvement-in- general Press advertising during the past few years, but there is still plenty of room for improvement. One thing that would bring about that improvement more than any other would 7 be if block buyers and users knew more about the making of blocks. A study of the most effective illustrations-in the daily Press will show which are the best-adapted for the cleanest printing. The types of half-tone illustration that give the best results are those which approach nearest to, the line and stipple block. These have light tones, well separated, a sprinkling of pure whites and key lines in solid black; but they have no large expanses of black. A good open-line drawing, strengthened by stipple tints, is an excellent block for common printing, but,'even to-day . full use is not made of the range of. stipples that are.at the disposal of the advertiser.' A few hours spent in explanation of various points would be wery profitable for both buyer and blockmaker, A few don’ts might prove useful. Don’t save a little on your photograph and spend a lot on retouching. Don’t use too fine a screen —it is better to err on the coarse side than on the fine. Don’t take weeks in laying out your catalogue and then make your blockmaker supply the blocks in the same number of hourjs. And, finally, don’t ’ fail to take advantage of an opportunity to get an inside knowledge of'blockmaking or printing.

Hand-to-Mouth Buying. The common assumption that hand-to-mouth buying, a notable characteristic of present-day business, is here to stay, is disputed by B. C. Forbes, a well-known writer on business topics. After remarking that hand-to-mouth buying is likely to have decided advantages for the merchant, and decided disadvantages for the manufacturer, jobber and wholesaler, he outlines in a recent issue of his magazine, why he thinks it is not likely to last indefinitely: To begin with, he says, people to-day are given to flying to extremes. Spells of pessimism are quickly followed by spells of optimism. People like to experiment and speculate. Another reason, he contends, is that business men - are not afraid to take chances. They like to pit their judgment against the judgment of other people. The normal way of doing business to-day is from hand-to-mouth—but the normal rarely lasts indefinitely. s State Lotteries. No one would expect the New Zealand Government to start a lottery to attract new depositors or to keep depositors from taking their money out of the postal savings banks. But that is just what the authorities are doing in Austria. In order to attract new accounts to the Austrian Postal Savings Bank, that institution has been authorised by the Federal Ministry of Finance to institute a system of premium deposits which provides for periodic lottery drawings, and the awarding of prizes to depositors whose accounts bear the winning numbers. The funds will be provided by the bank’s paying a lower rate of interest than on ordinary accounts, the money thus saved being distributed as premiums. It is hoped in this way to increase the deposits of the system, which has suffered greatly from .withdrawals since it was revealed in 1026 that losses of 110,000,000 schilling had been incurred through loans to banks and other credit transactions. Difficult Competition. The policy of public utility companies, of operating appliance stores in order to demonstrate the use of electrical appliances in the household, is arousing strong objections from the regular retailing establishments. The spokesmen complain: “When an electric light and power company opens an appliance store it does not make profit the first consideration. While the sale of a washing machine is a steady source of revenue to the’power company, over several years, the retailing establishment must rely upon the profit from the. sale of the appliances.” Hence the steady growth of utility-merchandis-ing departments is looked upon with anything but satisfaction. Department store and chain store spokesmen are putting their pleas on the basis of economy. They see a great waste in special appliance stores maintained by utilities in places where department stores and other retail establishments are quite willing to push the sale of these goods as rapidly as is needed. Again, the utilities, to push sales, have often asked for very small cash payments or perhaps no cash, payments at all; • Here the department store has become a critic of present methods of instalment selling, and has criticised the practice as unsound. There is no doubt that the utility stores have played a big part in increasing consumption of electricity, and-it seema .that the objectors must put up with this competition, which, is ;playing its part in the evolution of a great industry. Community Advertising. Can advertising sell the natural advantages of a city or district to the outside world in the same way that it sells any other commodity or service? Community advertising, which has shown remarkable progress in other countries, is not adopted to any great extent in New Zealand, otherwise its effectiveness would not be questioned. If you glanee through the advertising pages of any popular overseas journal, you will notice that most pleasure resorts and rising districts have their development clubs, which are largely concerned with the advertising of the natural advantages which they enjoy. One of the noteworthy community advertising enterprises is that carried on by the All-Year Club of Southern California, which, we are informed, spent £112,000 last year. In “the last six years, says the club secretary, something like £400,000 has been spent The following results are claimed: “IP our six years of advertising, the bank deposits of the city of Los Angeles have increased more than 100 per cent., as has the population. The assessed valuation of Los Angeles County has increased by more than £300,000,000 —more than 130 per cent. All of Southern California has increased in population and wealth along with the city and county of Los Angeles. Some of the figures are interesting. They show, for example, that where the city of San Bernardino increased in population Approximately 50 per cent, in the ten years 1910-20, it increased 100 per cent, in the six following years.